Bridgestone right on time for commercial fleet operators

More than 35,000 stranded commercial vehicle operators were assisted at the roadside by Bridgestone’s truck fleet service network in 2015, company figures reveal.

24 January 2016

Bridgestone Partner is comprised of hundreds of respected tyre dealers who will guarantee the highest level of service to fleets.

And its results for last year suggest that the offering is proving invaluable, as 36,000 jobs were accepted, with an average time of 62 minutes taken from the time the first call was made to the moment a Bridgestone Partner member arrived at the roadside.

Having then arrived at the stricken vehicle it took an average of 51 minutes to complete each job, meaning that each vehicle was up-and-running in an average of less than two hours, from the time the first call was made.

Bridgestone Partner aims to reinforce Bridgestone’s position as a true premium player and can assist in fuel, repair and downtime savings, with its mobile nitrogen inflation service a prime example of this pledge.

Tyre inflation, wear and eventual fuel economy figures will improve as a result of a nitrogen-rich mix, which can reduce the natural pressure loss from the tyre by around a third.

Commenting on the impressive Bridgestone Partner roadside assistance results, Paul Sheehan, national operations manager, said: “I am very proud of the roadside breakdown response times we can offer as a network.

“Despite a 22 per cent increase in the volume of work during 2015 as we take on the management of more and more fleets, the Bridgestone Partner network has managed to improve on the breakdown response times by four minutes versus an already impressive number in 2014.

“When we talk to our fleets, they cite vehicle uptime as one of their most important factors, so every minute we can save results in improved operational costs for our customer.

“We have over 315 commercial tyre dealerships and more than 1,000 vans in our Bridgestone Partner network, which means that we are the leading UK fleet tyre service provider.

“The consistency and professionalism of our breakdown service centre in Okehampton has also helped massively.”

Paul went on to praise Bridgestone’s online Total Tyre Manager system, which allows fleets to gain access to their own KPIs, including breakdown statistics.

This open book approach puts the information in their hands and means that there are no surprises when it comes to servicing.

Paul added: “Our proactive tyre husbandry and national audit teams mean that we have reduced the number of breakdowns per vehicle in 2015. Over the past 12 months, we have been asking fleets that aren’t operating a Bridgestone tyre policy to challenge our service provision.

“We carry out free of charge audits at these fleets, and find that in the majority of cases we can find ways to reduce their tyre costs and minimise their downtime.

“I am hoping that the statistics we are revealing will encourage more fleets to challenge us to reduce their costs.”